Integrating ESG Management (formerly ESG) with Watershed

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Integrating ESG Management (formerly ESG) with Watershed

    This integration enables ServiceNow ESG Management users to import and manage carbon emissions and renewable energy data from Watershed, a tool that measures and reports on organizational greenhouse gas emissions (Scopes 1, 2, and 3). This capability supports organizations in tracking, reducing, and reporting their carbon footprint effectively within the ServiceNow platform.

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    Key Features

    • Scope Emissions Classification: Watershed calculates greenhouse gas emissions categorized into Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy), and Scope 3 (other indirect emissions such as business travel and waste).
    • Data Import Process: ESG Management program managers with the snesg.programmanager role import Watershed data spreadsheets into ESG Management source tables.
    • Plugin Activation and Configuration: Activation of the Operational Sustainability Integration with Watershed plugin is required, along with configuration of metric integrations.
    • Role Requirements: The importadmin role must be added to the sngrcmetric.admin role for successful data imports.
    • Metric Definitions: Only automated metric definitions with "External source" as the method type support data import; manual metrics must be converted accordingly.
    • Metric Management: Metrics are generated and displayed based on defined frequencies, with values rolled up per the specified formulas. Data can be converted into preferred reporting units.
    • Default and Custom Data Types: Default import data includes carbon emissions, renewable energy, and non-renewable energy. Additional data types such as water usage or waste disposal can be imported via metric integrations.
    • Data Mapping and Transformation: Allows creation of custom data mappings for Watershed spreadsheet columns beyond defaults, record identifiers for entity mapping, import verification via import sets, and transform maps to convert staging data into metric data.

    Key Outcomes

    • ServiceNow customers can seamlessly import detailed emissions and energy data from Watershed, enabling comprehensive environmental sustainability tracking within ESG Management.
    • Automated metric definitions and integration configurations streamline data ingestion and metric calculation, reducing manual effort for ESG program managers.
    • Flexibility to customize data mappings and import additional sustainability metrics beyond carbon emissions enhances the scope of environmental reporting.
    • Verification tools ensure data accuracy and integrity during import, supporting reliable sustainability metrics and reporting.

    Watershed is a tool that enables organizations to measure their carbon emissions and renewable energy and its impact. It also enables organizations to act to reduce emissions, and to report on the progress to reduce their carbon footprint.

    ESG Management users can use Watershed to calculate their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for their business. A company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are classified into three Scopes. The following table explains the difference between each Scope.
    Table 1. Difference between Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
    Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3
    Direct GHG emissions from the following sources:
    • Fuel combustion
    • Emissions from company vehicles
    • Emissions from chemical production in owned or controlled process equipment
    • Fugitive emissions
    Indirect emissions from the following sources:
    • Purchased electricity
    • Heat and steam.
    Indirect emissions from the following sources:
    • Purchased goods and services
    • Business travel
    • Employee commuting
    • Waste disposal
    • Use of sold products
    • Transportation and distribution (up- and downstream)
    • Investments
    • Leased assets and franchises

    Watershed maintains its data in spreadsheets and provides those spreadsheets to the ESG Management program manager. As an ESG Management program manager, with the role sn_esg.program_manager, you must import the data from the spreadsheets into the source tables in the ESG Management application. The source tables are then specified in the metric definitions in a ServiceNow instance.

    To use the features of Watershed, you must activate the Operational Sustainability Integration with Watershed plugin and configure the metric integrations.
    Note:
    • To successfully import data, you must add the import_admin role to the sn_grc_metric.admin role.
    • Only automated metric definitions with External source as the Method type support data import. If you already have a manual metric definition in your system, you must change its Type to Automated and the Method type to External source before you can import data. For more information, refer to Create an automated metric definition.

    Before you import data from the spreadsheets, you can either create the metric definitions or you can rely on the system to create placeholders and add the details later.

    The metrics are generated based on the frequency that you have defined in the metric definition. The metric values, along with their units, are displayed on the metrics related list in the metric definition. The values are then rolled up based on the formula specified in the metric definition.
    Note:
    You can convert any metric data into a preferred reporting unit.
    By default, the ServiceNow AI Platform provides the following data that you can import from Watershed.
    • Carbon emissions
    • Renewable energy
    • Non-renewable energy

    You may also want to import other data such as water usage or waste disposal. To import other types of data, you can use the Metric integrations to import your data.